What could go wrong when you gather ten teenage social media influencers to film a reality show on a remote Caribbean Island – and with no access to the outside world? When one of their own falls to an untimely death and their watches start sending cryptic messages, these internet-famous Gen Z darlings soon find that they’re on the island for reasons other than they thought.

Told through four alternating characters' perspectives, this delicious and entertaining read will have you on the edge of your seat trying to crack the clues and figure out who-dun-it. Although it’s geared for YA readers, as a reality TV junkie, I found this to be a fun, engaging read.

Thank you to Olivia Worley, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of the book for an honest review.

Ten teenage social media influencers are gathering on a remote Caribbean island to film a new, edgy reality show. They are internet famous but are looking to freshen up their images. It starts off with a little drama as all the over-the-top personalities clash but things get terrifying when someone dies.

This book is great. I couldn’t put it down. It’s geared for a YA audience and I found it an entertaining insight into the Gen Z mindset.

4.5 Rounded Up!

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW was a really interesting concept. What would happen if ten influencers became stuck on a private island, thinking they were going to be filming a reality TV show, but instead were being hunted down one by one? That concept hooked me and almost continued to hook me for the entire book. I thought the twists were great, but my only issue was the ending, which didn't 100% add up for me.

As I said, this book had a great premise that was carried out well for 90% of the novel. It was like what would happen if Big Brother met One of Us is Lying. As a YA mystery, the characters, while a little immature, were all unreliable and complex in the best way. The author did a great job in poking holes in every single POV, of which there are 4. This going back and forth, to me, was really well done and helped me, as a reader, constantly be on my toes and guessing about what would happen next. And because I wanted to know what was going to happen, I couldn't put this book down.

My only issue with the book was probably the length and the ending. The length was just a BIT long at 352 pages.. I think this is because there are 10 contestants and 4 POVs, which meant for the book to be as well done as it was, there ending up being some repetitiveness. Also, the end for the big reveal, in some places, was just a bit weak. I think there was so much build up, with some of the secrets revealed being QUITE BIG AND JUICY, that, in comparison, some of the motivations for the characters and their grudges just didn't seem as justified or even as impressive. And when you have a thriller like this, I think that is the most important part. It could be my age as a 29 year old woman reading this, but I also think that for such a heavily read genre like thriller and mystery, where people are devoted to the genre itself, there needed to be some more information or more complex motivations given to connect everyone together.

Overall, I was engrossed with this book, and ultimately, that is what a YA thriller is all about. While I found the ending to be weak is some places and the book a bit too long, I still really liked the novel and it kept me guessing for large chunks of it!

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars

[ thank you @netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own! ]

PUB DATE: October 31, 2023

THOUGHTS:

Add this to your TBR if you are looking for a quick and fun read!

I enjoyed this one! There were short chapters which I appreciated. It just added to the tension in the story because I fell victim to “one more chapter” with this novel.

The mystery had me stumped. I didn’t figure it out — the person or the reasoning why! I liked the twists and turns, it made for a wild ride! And the addition of the sponsor texts.. loved those! It made it creepier to read!!

Overall, even though this is a YA thriller, if you enjoy reality shows or want a fun mystery, then pick this one up! I’ll be keeping an eye on this author in the future! 💛

People to Follow is a YA thriller about influencers coming together for a reality tv show. They come to the island for the show to be cut off from real life without social media or phones. However, things start to quickly go downhill when Secrets are revealed and someone ends up dead.

I enjoyed this book! It was a fun twisty YA book about a group stuck on an island. I love the island trope in books, it takes locked room mystery to another level! All of the characters were annoying but I think that is the point. It was a quick read and a fun read.

I'm a bit old for this book but I still enjoyed it. I think the twists were predictable but it didn't take away from my experience. I think the book is a bit cringe but I think it was supposed to be like that.

Thanks to net galley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Written in a whodunnit formula: dead body, multiple POVs, unreliable narrators - People to Follow should be an easy read but this book tries too hard and skews very young, alienating older readers.

I didn’t really care for it, the characters weren’t particularly likable or unique. There are four different POVs but it’s difficult to distinguish each voice, they could be interchangeable. The drama between the influencers was petty and childish, in the end you really don’t care if they live or die.

Ultimately the genre influence is obvious, with added overkill of social media culture that will either work for you, or for some over thirty, be cringy, predictable and forgettable.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an early copy to review.

I read a lot of YA for a person who is well into her thirties, but this book just made me feel old and out of touch—and I sometimes work with content creators for my actual job! It could be a case of a book simply not being for me, but I do like a good whodunnit (especially closed-door), so I thought this would resonate with me a little bit better than it did.

What didn’t work for me

The number of characters: Maybe it wasn’t actually the fact that there were 10 characters, but there wasn’t enough of a differentiation between them for me to remember who was who, especially when it came to the Bounce House crowd. I kept having to flip back to remember whose chapter I was reading and really think about the players at all times.

Unrealistic reactions: Call me crazy, but after two people from your group of 10 get murdered, I wouldn’t be playing Spin the Bottle to distract me. I felt that these people didn’t really care that those around them were dying and weren’t reacting to anything like in real life. Sure, these people are meant to be unlikeable and vain and full of themselves, but if 20% of the people you’re with die, you don’t just keep on keeping on with life. Their choices and decisions were ridiculous.

The ending: No spoilers here, but when there’s a letter at the end explaining a lot of things that should have been explained while the story was going on, it kind of means to me that something was missing in the plot.

What I liked

The red herrings: I will say, I didn’t guess the ending, and the red herrings kept me on my toes. The actual mechanics of the whodunnit were very well done; I just couldn’t with the characters.

2.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a fun book this was to read. I really liked the idea of 10 influencer staying on a remote island for three weeks. All of them were unlikeable but it didn't stop me from enjoying every bit of the story. In the end, I found this to be a great debut that I can recommend at the bookstore.

Many thanks to St. Martins Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for my gifted copy.

If there was ever a book where all the characters were unlikable people then this is it. This felt like something I have read before. Characters being stranded on an island, and killed off one by one is nothing new. It's who was behind it all that was surprising to me.

Ten influencers. One remote island. The latest reality show. When the influencers descend on the island for “In Real Life” they are excited to see what this show is all about, while being less excited by some of the other influencers invited. When production is delayed and ends up never arriving, plus one of their fellow influencers ends up dead, the group doesn’t know what this show is supposed to be all about. Will they be able to figure out who brought them here, why they did so, and manage to make it out alive?

Oh damn….I think we all just a little bit love to hate and love influencers. I get it, this account makes me an “influencer” but I can tell you one thing…it’s not funding my life! I wish it was sometimes though!! Anyway, this book had questioning every single one of these folks and wondering who was behind the show, the deaths, and the messages. Every influencer had something they were hiding for the “sponsor” to reveal to the world, and I could not stop flipping pages to find out what everyone was hiding!

It was okay! Not really my thing so kind of my bad for picking it up. I thought it would be a fun romp and it definitely was, just also a little too YA leaning for my tastes!

Book:
PEOPLE TO FOLLOW by Olivia Worley
October 31,2023)(thanks netgalley and St.Martins Press for the ebook)

Review:
5 ⭐
PEOPLE TO FOLLOW reminded me of a book I read called NEVER COMING HOME, and I'm not saying this like it's a bad thing. From the beginning, I was pulled in by the rivalry and drama(who doesn't love a little drama?). Once the action started(death and those creepy messages) I flew through PEOPLE TO FOLLOW. It was like I was in a trance. I needed to keep reading and reading, guessing at who was behind everything. I was surprised when I read the last couple of chapters. My brain never wrapped around what was actually happening, why it was happening, until I read the end. There's just something about not being able to solve the mystery that makes a book really really good This book was a page-turner, full of suspense and thrills, and I couldn't stop reading.  Like seriously, a murder mystery, influencers with lots to hide, secrets and lies,what's not to like?

What I Liked About It:
*the nonstop drama
*the mystery behind everything
*the lies, the secrets, the weird messages
*the overall concept

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the eARC.
This was a fun YA debut, especially if you like lots of twists, turns, and an intricate mystery. Ten young adult influencers are invited to an island for a reality TV show when one of them ends up dead, from there you're in for quite a ride. Worley nailed the pacing of this book. Each time I thought I had figured something out, she would surprise me with another revelation. I liked how everyone was a suspect and the further into the story, the deeper the motives became. It was so intricate and full of characters that were richly developed and also hard to like at times. Each POV also helped create the atmosphere of fear and suspense. This was well done and I can't wait to see what this author does next.

This one pleasantly surprised me as a quick and easy bingeable thriller. At first I wasn't sure...ten obnoxious influencers brought together for what they believe is a reality show only to start having their darkest secrets revealed whilst simultaneously being murdered one-by-one. It wasn't the "locked island" plot, but our author did a great job of making these people so unlikeable that I was almost turned off. However, thanks to the quickness of this one, I ended up accepting these atrocious humans and settled into the mystery of how had brought our influencers together for a game of murder.⁠
I will say I truly didn't know until the end who orchestrated the entire thing and why, and kept bouncing back and forth between the influencers were left alive, and I always appreciate when I can't guess the ending.⁠
This one can be binged as a beach read or to get you out of a reading slump!

Here's a reality show concept for you! Invite some of the most popular teen Instagram influencers to a remote island and take away their phones and platforms and see how it plays out! For various reasons, these influencers could use the boost, so they jump at the chance. Until they arrive that is. Pretty quickly some of them can see this cast was assembled to create some drama. But they could never imagine the extent of it until they find themselves isolated and one of the cast unexpectedly dies, and then another....
People to Follow is a Young Adult mystery thriller. Told from four POV (out of the ten influencers) the reader will quickly learn they all have something to hide. Challenging in any book is writing a story where almost none of the characters are likeable. And there was a lot to not like about these characters! The author highlighted some the worst about Influencers and reality tv. For me the story got a little bogged down in the middle and dragged somewhat. However, the ending moved quickly and wrapped up the whole storyline.

People to Follow, by Olivia Worley, is a young adult mystery/thriller featuring ten young influencers who are stranded on an island under the pretense of a new reality TV show. Things quickly go wrong, and before long bodies are piling up. I felt this novel had a lot of opportunity but fell short for me. It's told from 4 main POV - Elody, Logan, Max and Kira; but I didn't really like any of them and I felt like it was hard to keep up with who was who. I was glad when someone died because it was one less character to keep track of. I love YA but this one didn't live up to its potential for me! 3.5 stars because I was still entertained and read it pretty fast and never wanted to give up on it.

Ten teen influencers on an island and one winds up dead. Now the remaining nine are stranded there with no way to contact the outside world and a killer among them.

I likes the premise here but the characters were so unlikeable. I get that them being influencers that is bound to happen. But it’s a problem when it makes it not enjoyable to read.

This was such a fun one to read and definitely one that I would’ve enjoyed as a teenager as well. It’s a YA thriller with locked room vibes and a serious whodunnit plot.

There were a lot of characters introduced in the beginning (which always makes me a bit nervous because I can’t remember anything) but it worked out fine and actually helped with the plot a lot. There was that whole “picking the characters off one by one” trope that worked really well and made the story intense.

I honestly didn’t see the grand reveals coming! Well, I did a little bit. But I had some of the details mixed up, so I was very pleasantly surprised. There were a lot of red herrings, and that made it so fun to read.

My main complaint is honestly the amount of times one of the characters says “babe”. I know it’s part of her character, but I was ready to throw my book at the wall by the end.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for my gifted copy!

An exciting thrill ride following ten influencers trapped on an island where being canceled takes on a dangerous new meaning, and dying becomes a very real reality. WIth tv cameras rolling for a new reality show, the social media stars will have to find the killer among them before they’re all just a tragic byline. Tense, twisty, and half insane, this one is for fans of Among Us (game), Big Brother (tv show), and And Then There Were None (book).

This one was absolutely ridiculous, but honestly in a great way. Ten influencers fly to a private island for a reality show to unplug with no phones or internet only to have them start dying off one by one with an anonymous entity spilling their darkest secrets to the world. Talk about getting cancelled. As a child of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, I LOVED the anonymous bully/secret spiller angle. It was creepy and ominous in all the best ways. I liked having multiple POVS however I did think some were more developed than others. This book was filled with deeply unlikeable characters, but I thought it really showcased how toxic influencer culture can be. You do have to suspend your belief in reality a bit for the mystery, but I didn’t figure it out ahead of time and honestly I thought it was well done. If you’re a fan of Pretty Little Liars, I think you’ll enjoy this one!
TW: Murder, violence, mentions of grooming, bullying

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.